The pension reform bill that passed Tuesday in the Illinois Legislature is unpopular with lots of folks:

Liberal government employee unions hate it. Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery called the bill “unfair, unconstitutional pension theft” and he vowed to fight it, along with other unions.

Conservative opinion makers say the bill is a sellout to the same unions that call it theft!

“Under this plan, the unfunded liability remains at crisis levels: The bill reportedly only drops the unfunded liability to 2011 levels that had already thrown Illinois into crisis. ... And the remaining $80 billion pension shortfall will continue to cripple the state,” said the conservative Illinois Policy Institute.

The far right Rockford Tea Party called the bill “smoke and mirrors” on Facebook. “This Democrat offer with Republican complicity is not fixing this issue.”

This perplexity caused Sen. Dave Syverson, R- Rockford, who voted for the bill, to remark on Facebook that in 20 years as a state senator, he had “never seen the politics on a piece of legislation like this pension reform bill. On one hand you have almost every conservative talk show host, columnist, and Tea Party leader opposing the bill, saying it’s a give away, just minor cuts, and does not fix the problem. Then you have educators and state employees opposing the bill for the exact opposite reason. At least this bill has brought the Tea Party and AFSCME (a government employee union) together on a issue. Who’d have thought?”

One thing I’ve learned from covering politics is that when neither extreme likes a bill that attempts to solve a controversial and complicated problem, it’s probably a reasonable compromise.

Briefly, the bill, which Gov. Pat Quinn will sign, reduces the 3 percent annual compounded pension increases according to a formula; raises the retirement age; and reduces employee pension contributions.

“The bill is estimated to save $160 billion over 30 years and achieve a 100 percent funding ratio no later than the end of FY2044, says the Illinois Municipal League. “The bill is estimated to reduce the unfunded liability by 20 percent and is estimated to reduce the FY2015 pension payment by $1 billion.”

But as Stadelman told me Wednesday, “Doing nothing was not an option. We needed to force movement on this issue. Let’s start the process of a court challenge and see what’s constitutional.”

Stadelman was lobbied “intensely and persistently” by both sides.

Still not addressed is the need to reform police and fire pensions paid at the local level. But Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey said the General Assembly’s movement on state pension reform, coupled with a federal judge’s approval of Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy plan on the same day, is potentially good news for local governments as it may spur legislative action on fire and police pension reform.

Page 2 of 2 - “From Rockford’s standpoint, our pensions are much better funded than the state’s; we’re in the 65-plus percent range. But pension payments are taking more and more of our budgets. That hinders the ability to provide adequate police protection when the retirement system is so expensive,” the mayor said.

Morrissey said the funding problem dated to the 1990s when pensions were sweetened with such things as the 3 percent annual compounded raises, regardless of the inflation rate.

“Nobody anticipated this. In 1998, we had been doing well, stocks were doing well, and during all the euphoria a bunch of pension enhancements were passed, including the 3 percent adjustments, earlier retirement, and your spouse continues to get the adjustments after you die. (Employees) did not pay for all that,” Morrissey said.